Did Ricciardo lie on the Instagram post about his McLaren future?
F1 News
Andreas Seidl has confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo was aware he wouldn't be part of the McLaren team for the 2023 Formula 1 season on July 4th. This is contrary to Daniel Ricciardo's social media post on July 13th where he stated he was committed to the team for 2022 and 2023.
Did Ricciardo lie?
In a conversation on Sky Sports, McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl was asked by the presenter: "Did Daniel know he had signed the contract on July 4th?". To which Seidl said: "Yes obviously. I won't go into details of the conversation I'm having with Daniel, but throughout the last month we always had an open and transparent dialogue with Daniel on where we both stand."
It, therefore, seems as if Ricciardo knew his future wasn't at McLaren when he posted the following message on Instagram. Ricciardo said: "I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and am not walking away from the sport." Though perhaps the door is open for a move to IndyCar.
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) July 13, 2022
Piastri saga
Following Fernando Alonso's shock departure from Alpine, the team decided to call upon junior driver Piastri. However, Piastri knew nothing about the deal. During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Otmar Szafnauer reported that the contract recognition board were being called upon. This confused Seild.
"The CRB was never a case, and you should ask the other party why they thought they had a case. Therefore, this isn't a surprise for us, and now it's important to focus on the future and the final 8 races of the season with Daniel and Lando," Seidl told Sky Sports.